The best-selling author whose “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has been shaking up the world says Karl Marx did not influence his research, but his statement may be tongue in cheek; the true Crimean referendum results were accidentally revealed, showing only 15 percent of voters backed annexation; meanwhile, the mayor of Seattle has proposed a plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. These discoveries and more after the jump.

The deceiving viral video that helped America justify fighting proxy wars in Africa has left its mark; Obamacare critics rant against Canadian style health care, but there are key differences between our system and that of our neighbor to the north; meanwhile, France is belatedly outraged about the NSA leaks. These discoveries and more after the jump.

As neighboring Argentina brings its oil supply under state control, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced last week that his government has placed the country’s electricity sector under public ownership by seizing the main power grid from a Spanish company.

In a political move that would make John Locke’s head explode, Bolivia is poised to pass a law that would grant nature equal rights with those afforded humans. The Law of Mother Earth is expected to usher in a radical new conservation policy against pollution and exploitation.

President Evo Morales is pressing forward with his nationalization program in Bolivia, seizing four private electric companies Saturday morning. The government now controls 80 percent of the country’s power generation.

Instead of taking U.S. aid money for climate change, Bolivia is taking a leadership role in helping organize civil society and governments, globally, to alter the course of the next major U.N. climate summit.

In a press conference before a meeting of Latin and Caribbean countries in Cancun, Mexico, Evo Morales proposed a new Organization of American States “without empire” that would remove Canada and the U.S. from the organization’s roster.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, opinion polls running heavily in his favor, appeared headed for a second five-year stint as president as voting wrapped up Sunday. The “peasant president” commands wide support among the country’s poor indigenous people—65 percent of the population.

Bolivian President Evo Morales on Saturday made another move to signal his administration’s displeasure with the United States, announcing that he is “indefinitely” halting all activities of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency within his country.